So, bring on LSU Basketball as the Tigers (8-5) will host No. 9 Kentucky (11-2) at 8 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN fresh off a 90-82 victory at highly regarded Vanderbilt. LSU’s ratings percentage index jumped from No. 168 to No. 144 with the win over the Commodores, who fell from No. 42 in the RPI to No. 59. That RPI could jump significantly more with a win over the Wildcats, who are No. 6 in the RPI.

LSU has announced a sellout for the 13,215-seat Pete Maravich Assembly Center for Tuesday’s game.

“Our fans are always excited to see good basketball,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said on his radio show Monday night. “Kentucky has another great basketball team, and the Tigers are fun to watch. So this is an opportunity for our fans to be exposed to a great night in the P-MAC. We’re looking forward to a great atmosphere. It’s going to be an exciting night for us.”

Fans will also get to see the nation’s best freshman – if not the nation’s best player – and the projected first selection of the NBA Draft this summer in LSU forward Ben Simmons, who is coming off one of the best games of his career. Simmons scored 36 points with 14 rebounds and four assists in the Tigers’ win in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt had no answer for him as the Commodores tried different players and different defenses on the versatile 6-foot-10 superstar. Fouling him also did not work. Simmons made 16 of 19 free throws.

“He really took over the game,” Jones said.

Not taking over games and being too unselfish were the criticisms of Simmons as the Tigers dropped five games in November and December - usually to lesser opponents.

“I was just being aggressive. I knew their bigs couldn’t guard me,” Simmons said. “That’s just my mentality with everybody. It doesn’t matter who it is.”

That mindset may not work as well against Kentucky, which may use 6-8 senior forward Alex Poythress against Simmons. Poythress averages 9.4 points and 7.3 rebounds a game. Freshman Jamal Murray, a 6-4 guard who was the No. 9 point guard in the nation out of high school in Kitchener, Ontario, leads the team with 16.8 points a game. Isaiah Briscoe, the No. 10 point guard in the nation last year out of Newark, New Jersey, is averaging 11 points and 5.5 rebounds a game.

Simmons was named the SEC freshman of the week for his effort in the Vanderbilt game and for his 21 points and 12 rebounds in a 77-71 loss to Wake Forest earlier last week. He is third in the SEC in scoring with 20.5 points a game and is second in the nation with 13.1 rebounds a game.

“For him to be able to perform on that stage at that level against a team of that caliber, I think says a lot about Ben, his awareness and his abilities,” Jones said.

“They’ve got one of the best players in the country who can beat you 10 different ways,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said Wednesday on the SEC teleconference. “We’ve got to be who we are and maybe make them change. But you better have a game plan A and B against them, because he can go for 40. He is a 6-9 point guard-ish guy that will go to next to the basket, make free throws, so you can’t foul him. And in transition when he brings it up, he’s a great playmaker.”